I want to thank Jim Steyer and Common Sense Media for bringing this event together and starting this important dialogue – and for your tireless efforts to keep the digital world that our kids inhabit safe and healthy.

I'm excited to be here to celebrate the launch of the 2011 competition, and its potential to propel a quantum leap forward in education reform. We're on the verge of harnessing education's power to unleash the full measure of human potential.

The Education Department's Office of Educational Technology (OET) will host booth #3212 and make several presentations at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Philadelphia June 25-July1.

Today, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance through Dear Colleague Letters to elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education along with a Frequently Asked Questions document on the legal obligation to provide students with disabilities an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of technology.